According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.82 square miles (2.12 km2), all of it land.

John Baptiste Arpin and his twin brother Antoine came from Quebec and had been logging in this part of Wisconsin since the 1860s.

[7] Back in that first Arpin, a store, a post office, some homes, a Presbyterian church, and a creamery grew up near the sawmill.

[6] Also in 1890, the Port Edwards, Centralia & Northern Railway[8] (later acquired by the Wisconsin Central) built its line from Rapids to Marshfield a mile to the west of the first village.

Martin Pfyle started another little village a mile south on the rail line.

[8] In 1902 the Chicago & Northwestern built another rail line alongside the first, also running from Rapids to Marshfield.

Through all this time, a community of Potawatomi and other Indians lived at Skunk Hill, four miles to the southwest, welcoming outsiders to some of their dances.

Arpin was the site of an early twentieth century agricultural settlement of Jewish families from Europe.

The German philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch had become concerned about the plight of European Jews who were migrating in increasing numbers to large cities.

He established the Industrial Removal Office to settle Jewish families into what were seen as more healthy environments.

Each family was to be assigned a 40-acre (160,000 m2) tract with livestock, implements, a suitable dwelling, and funds to cover incidental expenses.

By May 1906 the new settlers had cleared an average of 10 acres (40,000 m2) each and had begun to produce crops of corn and vegetables and to cut cord wood.

With the money from these crops the settlers were able to begin payment of interest owed to the society.

In the 1920s people began to drift away; bitterly cold winters, better paying jobs in nearby cities, and the difficulties of anyone in Wisconsin trying to making a living on small farms were all factors in the slow decline of the colony.

[9] In 2008 Wisconsin Public Television produced a program, Chosen Towns, which features interviews with people remembering Arpin and other similar settlements.